Alice in Wonderland Tea Party
We were late in celebrating the 150th anniversary, but I still wanted to do something. So, tea party it was.
For the entrance, I covered the door and walls in black bulletin board paper and decorated with print outs of Alice pictures and images I cut with the library's Cricut. I had a deck of playing cards that had a floral print on the back that looked perfect for Alice in Wonderland--I taped them to some clear fishing line, tied it around a push pin, and stuck them in our ceiling tile. I drew the keyhole shape with masking tape.
Harsh lighting.
I had the oldest Alice in Wonderland film (from 1903!) playing on the projector. The music gave an eerie feel to coming through the keyhole.
The "tea" was fruit punch, which we drank out of plastic tea cups. We had three long tables set up with mismatched tablecloths and tea pots. I made these playing card Rice Krispies Treats as well. (Store-bought Rice Krispies Treats with red icing piped on. I printed out the card faces from this site, cropped just the face and resized it to 1.742"x1.89". I taped the face to a toothpick and stuck in the top of the Rice Krispie.)
I was inspired by this blog.
Along one wall I put up some whimsical trees, made from construction paper and bulletin board paper. I added white roses and attached some red crayons with yarn to the trees so the young'ns could paint the roses red. I found my white roses here.
I was inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest to turn a big box into Alice's shrinking room. I made the fireplace out of cardboard, hot glue, and construction paper. I found the tiny plant at the Dollar Tree, and hot glued a square of fabric around a small dowel rod for the window.
Roughly the size of my apartment.
It was a well used photo op at the event. Here is my nephew modeling:
Also for pictures I made some Alice in Wonderland-themed photo props.
I originally ordered an Alice in Wonderland pop-up book from Amazon for a prize (whoever had a white rabbit under their chair was going to win it), but when it arrived, it was badly torn and beyond repair. So I just set it out as a display. It worked out.
We also had a pack of giant playing cards that I put up for decoration.
For a craft, I found some tiny white top hat party favor boxes on Oriental Trading. I set up the Mad Hatter's Hat Shoppe and let the kids decorate them.
I downloaded the Red Queen's Mini Croquet Game and set it up on another table.
But I used print outs of playing card soldiers taped to some cardstock instead of pipe cleaners. And I added a hedgehog to the ping pong ball.
I also made a Playing Card Soldier bean bag toss. Again, I used the card soldier printable from this link. I just enlarged it and cut out the face and hearts.
And I set up our giant chess set in the corner.
I also put several passages from the book on the walls and accompanying each activity. Yay words!
And for the record, I'm aware that the title is actually Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I had some internal conflict about it, but it got shortened for poster and speaking purposes. I mean "adventures" is a whole three extra syllables. Get off my back.
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